Fiat, Google Plan Partnership on Self-Driving Minivans
May 3rd, 2016Via: Bloomberg:
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Alphabet Inc.’s Google plan to develop several dozen self-driving prototypes based on the carmaker’s Pacifica minivan in the first phase of a joint project to create autonomous vehicles, people familiar with the matter said.
Fiat Chrysler plans to equip the new Pacifica, which will be available as a plug-in hybrid, with Google technology starting this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified before an official announcement. The companies would remain free to cooperate in driverless technology with other partners, the people said.
Donald Trump Accuses Ted Cruz’s Father of Associating With Kennedy Assassin
May 3rd, 2016Eh?!
Via: New York Times:
Donald J. Trump, who has repeatedly dabbled in conspiracy theories during his time on the campaign trail, accused Senator Ted Cruz’s father of associating with Lee Harvey Oswald not long before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Trump’s comments, in a Fox News interview, came in the wake of an article in The National Enquirer claiming to have definitive photographic evidence that Rafael Cruz was with Oswald distributing leaflets supporting the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in Louisiana in 1963.
The Truth About Statin Drugs and Cholesterol
May 2nd, 2016Via: Dr. Daniel Pompa:
U.S. Military Tests World’s Largest Unmanned Ship
May 2nd, 2016Via: Stars & Stripes:
The military is starting tests on the world’s largest unmanned surface vessel — a self-driving, 132-foot ship designed to travel thousands of miles out at sea without a single crew member on board.
The so-called “Sea Hunter” has the potential to revolutionize not only the military’s maritime operations but commercial shipping, according to military officials. If successful, it could usher in the arrival of unmanned cargo vessels moving between countries.
Puerto Rico Defaults
May 2nd, 2016Via: CNN:
Puerto Rico is dialing 9-1-1 for any help it can get.
The island was unable to make a $422 million debt payment due Monday. It’s another alarm bell of how bad the situation is getting on the island.
Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla calls it a “humanitarian crisis,” which a step above an economic emergency. He claims he is prioritizing paying Puerto Rico’s police and teachers over Wall Street.
The Secretive, Billionaire-Backed Plans to Harness Fusion
May 1st, 2016Via: BBC:
Inside a laboratory near Vancouver in British Columbia, an alarm is blaring. In the middle of the industrial warehouse stands what looks like a cannon from a spaceship, about five metres long and festooned in wires.
None of the lab’s red-coat-wearing technicians seem fazed by the noise. The siren, which alerts workers to don protective earmuffs in case of a blown fuse, precedes every test “shot” on this prototype nuclear fusion reactor – and these engineers have performed well over 50,000 shots over the past five years.
That speed – currently, 50 to 100 tests a day – would not be possible within the bureaucracy of a public lab, where the most prominent research in long-awaited fusion energy is being conducted. But this is a little-known company called General Fusion – funded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and free to pursue technological revolution at its own, breakneck pace.
General Fusion is just one of a pack of private fusion firms to catch the attention of physicists and investors. Unencumbered by red tape, these venture-backed companies believe that they can find a faster, cheaper way to fusion than government-sponsored projects, and some very influential people agree: besides Bezos, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel are also backing firms at the forefront of fusion development. Some of these enterprises are rather shadowy: the company Allen is invested in, Tri Alpha, operated for years almost entirely in secret – until recently, it didn’t even have a website.
House Defense Policy Bill Would Require Women to Register for Draft
April 30th, 2016Via: Wall Street Journal:
The House Armed Services Committee approved an annual defense policy bill early Thursday morning that includes a provision that would require women to register with the Selective Service System.
House passage of the policy measure came about a month after Defense Secretary Ash Carter approved final plans to integrate women into all front-line military combat units. The military services are beginning to put those plans into effect, though officials have cautioned that the full incorporation of women could take years and that they are unlikely to be equally represented in many combat units.
The requirement that women register for the draft would be more a symbolic measure than a practical one, as the U.S. hasn’t used a draft system since the Vietnam War.
State of Emergency Declared in Baghdad as Protesters Take Iraqi Parliament
April 30th, 2016Update: Protesters Leave Baghdad’s Green
Via: CNN:
Protesters who stormed Baghdad’s Green Zone retreated Sunday but organizers say the challenge to Iraq’s leadership isn’t over yet.
—
Via: Washington Post:
Protesters stormed Iraq’s parliament Saturday in a dramatic culmination of months of demonstrations, casting uncertainty over the tenure of the country’s prime minister and the foundations of the political system laid in place after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Security forces declared a state of emergency in the Iraqi capital after demonstrators climbed over blast walls and broke through cordons to enter Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, also home to ministries and the U.S. embassy. Many were followers of Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has been urging his supporters onto the streets.
Lawmakers fled the building in panic, with some berated and struck as they left. Others were trapped in the basement for hours, too afraid to face the crowds who complain that the country’s political class is racked by corruption.
Zero Hedge: “Tyler Durden” Is Three Guys
April 29th, 2016Via: Bloomberg:
Colin Lokey, also known as “Tyler Durden,” is breaking the first rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club. He’s also breaking the second rule of Fight Club. (See the first rule.)
After more than a year writing for the financial website Zero Hedge under the nom de doom of the cult classic’s anarchic hero, Lokey’s going public. In doing so, he’s answering a question that has bedeviled Wall Street since the site sprang up seven years ago: Just who is Tyler Durden, anyway?
The answer, it turns out, is three people. Following an acrimonious departure this month, in which two-thirds of the trio traded allegations of hypocrisy and mental instability, Lokey, 32, decided to unmask himself and his fellow Durdens.
Lokey said the other two men are Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst long reputed to be behind the site, and Tim Backshall, 45, a well-known credit derivatives strategist. (Bloomberg LP competes with Zero Hedge in providing financial news and information.)
Nevada: First-Of-Its-Kind Rail Energy Storage Project
April 29th, 2016Via: Utility Dive:
The newest entrant into the energy storage market bears a passing resemblance to cutting edge 19th century technology.
It is a rail car with no passengers or freight that goes nowhere. But if the California company working on this technology is right, its rail cars could make big inroads in the energy storage market.
At heart, though, the concept is simple. Electricity powers an electric motor in a locomotive that hauls a heavy load up hill. Sitting at the top of the hill, the rail cars store energy. When the energy is needed, the cars are released to roll down hill and the electric motor runs in reverse to generate electricity.
The company, ARES, is a start-up based in Santa Barbara that is named after its technology, Advanced Rail Energy Storage.
Any resemblance to 19th century rail technology belies the high tech workings of the system and the fact that ARES holds three patents for its technology.
The same electro-mechanical principle that powers the ARES system supplies the regenerative braking power in electric vehicles like a Toyota Prius or in wayside regenerative braking systems such as the one being installed on the metropolitan Philadelphia commuter rail line: When an induction motor that powers a train or car is reversed, it produces electricity.
ARES now hopes to put those principles to work in Nevada where it just won approval from the Bureau of Land Management for its first commercial project.
ARES wants to lay a nearly 5.5 mile track up an 8 degree slope, gaining about 2,000 feet top to bottom. ARES would then put up to seven 8,600-ton trains on the track with each train comprising two locomotives and four rail cars. The entire system, including substation and control systems, would occupy about 43 acres of public land near Pahrump in Clark and Nye Counties.
